About Day Trips

Visitors may be coming soon - parents, grandchildren, nieces,
nephews, and friends from out of town. And while it's
nice

to hang around the house exchanging gifts, political views or
insults (depending on what sort of family and friends you have)
there's always a day excursion to get everyone out of the house and
give visitors a chance to see a bit of New Jersey.

Things are quite different this year. One standby visit for
out-of-town guests - the trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis
Island - is closed for now. We don't know when it will be re-opened
and various websites give different information. It's best to check
out www.nps.gov for anything relating to the National Park Service,
although most other historic sites and parks run by the Service
seem to be fully open.

Liberty Science
Center

Even without the trip to the statue, you should still visit
Liberty State Park in Jersey City. This park not only affords a
view of the Manhattan skyline, a small nature center and various
ferry services, it is the home of another standby for vacationing
kids, The Liberty Science Center. This huge white museum has three
levels of science and technology exhibits that surround a vast
atrium. Inside the atrium, the aluminum Hoberman Sphere expands and
contracts like a beating heart.

Around the perimeter, there are permanent exhibits that seem to
attract kids of different age levels. One is a large touch tunnel
where kids navigate a pitch-dark maze using only their tactile
senses. Another is a fossil rock wall, where an agile youngster can
rockclimb in a limited environment. All sorts of interactive
computers and puzzles are fixed in various sections of the
museum.

The upper floors include a small aquarium where a touch tank
allows visitors to stroke a few denizens of the deep, while the
downstairs exhibit of reality basketball (and other sports) always
has the 12-year-olds enthralled.

Traveling exhibits are often top-notch. The present one, on view
through Jan. 6, is called "Raise the Roof" and features hands-on
participation in small-size home construction and should be
fun.

As for the IMAX Theater (the largest in the U.S.A.) there are
two different films running so be sure to check the program
beforehand. These nature films, presented on an eight-story high
curved screen, are almost three-dimensional in feel. They tend to
be filled on holiday weeks, so it's a good idea to buy your tickets
ahead of time.

Same goes for the 3-D theater which can have outstanding shows.
Admission prices run $10 for adults for museum entrance alone, with
higher combination prices for IMAX and 3-D shows. Children and
seniors are slightly less, and teachers get in for a mere $2.

To get to the center and park, take Exit 14B off the N.J.
Turnpike. For more information, call (201) 200-1000. or go to
www.lsc.org.

Northlandz

Visiting kids? How about visiting grandparents? Either group (or
both together) seem to gravitate to Northlandz where The Great
American Railway has been running its miniature trains since
1996.

There are 135 different trains that whiz over eight miles of
track. Tracks cut through high mountains, prairie towns, cityscapes
and strange quarries and over a number of spectacular bridges. This
is all encompassed in a huge gray building that looks like a Greek
Temple.

Inside, visitors walk up a ramp that winds around three floors
and takes about a mile of legwork. As you walk up you get to see
scenery from different angles. The first

section offers rather mild settings, but as you move along, the
scenes become more interesting, humorous or breath-taking. Don't
forget to stop by Granny's cabin set alone on a high spike of
mountain surrounded by a huge quarry.

Trains pass little towns with miniature people and animals. A
marching band, a group of workers, cows and horses out to pasture,
a prairie scene, and a southwest scene are part of the "tour".
Among the places you encounter are a Swiss Village and an American
mining town, a city that looks like Pittsburgh and a lone monastery
that looms atop a mountain.

Allow at least two hours for a visit to Northlandz. The complex
also includes a handcrafted dollhouse featuring 94 rooms which are
set along the wall in compartments. Many of the scenes inside the
dollhouse are also humorous with a typical 1950s family in one
room, a ballroom scene in another, and pets in another.

Doll collectors will like the showcase of fancily outfitted
dolls in the doll museum, while the kids will certainly visit the
gift shop with its railroad memorabilia and toys and the coffee
shop which features hot dogs, chips and soda. Prices run $13.75 for
adults, $12.50 for seniors and $9.75 for children 2 to 12.

Northlandz is located in Flemington on Route 202 just north of
the Circle. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays and from 10
a.m. to 6 p.m., weekends. Check for holiday hours. For more
information, call (908) 782-4022.

Nature Centers

Want a cheap excursion? Then don't forget the Nature Centers
that abound in central New Jersey. They are always good for a short
walk in the woods or a perusal of the terrariums, aquariums,
stuffed animals or ecological displays one finds inside. There are
also special programs going on weekends also and plenty of
brochures for self-guided tours.

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